Hello, and thank you for listening to The History of World War II, Episode 2, writing

The Nazi World Went.

The last episode ended with the onset of what later became known as the Great Depression.

The collapse of the economy installed fear and misery in every German heart, except

out of Hitler's.

With confusion following the fear, Hitler knew that people would be more open, even desperate,

for his message of blaming the current government for their problems.

But Germany's leaders, like the leaders of other countries, simply did not know how

to combat the global depression.

Never had the world economies been so intertwined.

The knee jerk reaction by those in charge was to cut cost and stop spending.

This of course only made matters worse.

Germany's Social Democrats, the party in charge, was trying to come up with legislation

to help the people, but they could not agree on the details of an unemployment insurance

fund.

So the leader, Chancellor Hermann Müller, resigned in frustration in March of 1930 when

the bill could not be passed.

Müller would be the last Social Democrat leader, as well as the last leader of a coalition

of Democratic parties.

He was replaced by Heinrich Bruning, the leader of the Catholic center party.

Bruning was hand picked by General Kurt von Schleicher, who had the ear of President

Hindenburg.

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